Teen Checkup | Internet Safety

Do Teen Behavior Issues Spell Trouble Later in Life?

Photo by ooOJasonOoo

An interesting study on childhood behavior caught my eye this week. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself until I lay it all out for you.

A new study published in the British Medical Journal found that people who displayed behavioral problems as teenagers were more likely to develop mental or personal problems in adulthood.

Such problematic behaviors include disobedience, lying, tardiness, restlessness, truancy, daydreaming in class and poor response to discipline.

More than 1,000 adolescents in this study who had moderate conduct problems were more likely to leave school early or be involved in teenage pregnancy, and later in life had increased likelihood of divorce, alcohol abuse, and overall life adversity. Researchers were surprised that even adolescents with milder behavioral problems had poor outcomes in adulthood.

One caveat: These teens were assessed in 1959 and 1961.

But don’t let those dates fool you. Doctors say that there’s a large body of research that indicates problems that emerge in adolescence are risk factors for mental disorders, such as alcoholism, in adulthood.

So now for my two cents.

I hate to say it (and don’t ever tell my children) some of my behaviors as a teenager fall under that “problematic” umbrella. I’d say I displayed five of the above mentioned behaviors on a weekly basis. I’m not proud of it. In fact, I’m quite ashamed. But, I’m happy to report that none of my behavioral problems spilled into my adult life. I successfully overcame all of them - and so did most of my friends.

I mean, come one, if this study was truly accurate, we’d all be living with a bunch of alcoholic serial killers. Am I right?

Teens may cause a lot of trouble - but all of us must keep the faith that one day they’ll outgrow their problematic traits.